COVENTRY start a week they view as crucial to the rest of their season when they take on Cambridge at the Butts Park Arena tomorrow.

After defeats in their opening two games, Cov are on home turf for successive weekends with newcomers Loughborough Students visiting next Saturday.

And although it is still early days in a National League One campaign stretching over eight months, rugby director Phil Maynard recognises the importance of these fixtures against two of the expected lesser lights of the division in terms of Cov’s future.

“We need to win these two games, it’s as simple as that,” conceded Maynard.

“Nothing is going to be decided in these early stages but we can’t allow gaps to open up and it terms of our development it’s vital that we win games like these, especially on our own ground.

“Last week’s performance at Cinderford was a big move in the right direction for us and we have to take that forward and move on to the next level.”

Cov will finalise their team today after assessing training last night. Scrum-half Nathan Jones is doubtful after taking a heavy knock at Cinderford with Lewis Barker expected to start, while new signing, former Plymouth Albion centre Steve Johns is in contention for a place and, in the forwards, prop Rob Dugard may start after two weeks coming off the bench.

Cambridge, recovering from serious financial problems last season, went down at home to Cinderford in their opening game before scoring a narrow win over Loughborough last week.

Cov have failed to beat them over four games in the last two seasons, but Maynard saw enough at Cinderford – where Cov led by 17 points at one stage before slipping to a 36-31 defeat – to suggest that run could be ended.

“Our scrum was better, the line-out generally worked okay, and we are starting to gel properly,” he said. “This game will be as tough as it always is against them, but if we stay with our game plan for the 80 minutes and cut out the errors from last week, we will be fine.” Kick-off is 3pm.